Above and below ground

This week has been a short week but we have still managed to have lots of fun and learn a lot.

The EYFS children (Luke, Kai, Julien, Katie, Sergi, Ivet, Cloe, Carla, Nico and Ona) have spent some time this week recapping the language learnt last week when they started to learn about money in a shop context! They've had a wonderful time taking on the shop keeper role and they all did well to ask politely for what they would like. Kai has really absorbed the language needed to ask politely for things in a shop, he loved the money exchange and having the option for all sorts of exciting toys in his class mates' shops.

In the third week of our plant topic, the children have been investigating plants that grow above and below ground. They have also been working hard to solidify their understanding of what factors are needed for it to grow well! Sergi did such a fantastic job of separating vegetables that grow above and under ground. Julien and Sergi worked as a great team to decide whether different fruits or vegetables should be in their sky or soil pictures that they drew so nicely. Katie has got fully involved in learning another song; this time about the  parts of plants and their function! Gabrielle is really amazed by how quickly she learns and understands the lyrics. Her enthusiasm is wonderful to see! Ivet and Cloe have worked as a lovely little team. Gabrielle read the story of the hungry caterpillar; looking at mini beasts and how they can be naughty around the plants we grow! They did a great job of sequencing the events of the story, which involved ordering the numbers of fruit and vegetables that he ate and remembering what they were called! Ona was super motivated during their plant hunt; labelling plants, the parts of them and the tools in our surroundings. She tried her best to read the words and to be the quickest person to find the selected objects in the garden.

Last of all, as we're in our last stretch of the term, we have begun revisiting all of the single sound phonics they have learnt this year through interactive fun!  Nico has continued to expand his impressive grasp on phonics and drew clear images of different things beginning with 's' in our surroundings. He then challenged himself further to try to write them, too! Carla is noticeably improving her ability to hear similar phonics sounds. She has been more focused than ever this week and she has worked really hard to try and make links between the ‘n’ and 's' sounds which she has been learning.

Unfortunately, Luke is still in Lithuania and has not returned to school yet. We all hope he returns soon so that we can see him before the end of the school year.

The KS1 children  (Carla, Noa, Arlet, Marcel, Jordi, Joana and Thais) have been working on money in maths. They have been identifying which coins were more value and which ones were less. Jordi , Marcel, and Arlet were  able to very quickly identify the values of each coin and they confidently added coins together to create different amounts. Noa, Carla and Thais are starting to recognise and confidently order the coins from the smallest to biggest value but they found it a little more difficult to  add the coins to make different amounts of money.

The children have been practising for the performance on Friday by explaining the jobs of each part of the plant. They whole group did very well to remember the parts of the plant and the jobs which each part has! The children were able to speak about plants, using some very nice and varied vocabulary. They also each wrote a sentence to explain the job of each part of the plant. Joana, Thais and Noa have really started to improve on their spellings. They tried really hard to sound out the letters!

The children have also been learning how to differentiate between fruits  and vegetables by playing a game- 'what am I'. As a group, they read a description of a fruit or vegetable and then they had to work out which one it was! It was great to see Arlet working independently and reading the descriptions herself. Jo was also really impressed with Carla as she was extremely confident to identify each fruit and vegetable and correctly say their names.

The KS2 children (Judit, Blanca, Sara B, Sofia, Sara, Tatiana, Nil, Pau and Arnau) have also continued to learn about money, within a problem solving context. They have been working fantastically in groups to plan a pretend camping trip for a family of four. The children had to follow very strict instructions and they had to make sure that their trip stayed within the allocated budget. Blanca  and Sara B really impressed me with the way in which they organised themselves. They were very strict about what or was not a necessity on the trip. It was great to see how seriously they took the task and how keen they were to ensure that the family did not spend any unnecessary money! Judit and Sofia also responded really well to the task. It was great to see how concerned they were about spending too much money and both of the girls gained a real understanding of how much things cost and how expensive it is to buy things and set  the family up so that they could enjoy their holiday. I was really happy to see how much it opened the girls’ eyes as it allowed them to see just how expensive it is in the real world.

The children have also continued to prepare their plant projects for the presentation. When finishing their project on English plants, I have been really impressed with Nil. He has worked so hard to support his team mates and has been keen to complete different parts of the project to help his friends get it finished. It has been great to see him so confident and motivated to complete it and I am really proud of the attitude he has towards his work. Pau has also gained more confidence in his own abilities when completing different parts of the project. He stills find it difficult to voice his opinions when working in a group but he is definitely more confidence to create different parts of the project and present them to his friends.

In art this week, the children have been creating furniture for our mouse house, using clay and box modelling materials. I was really proud of Sara and the way in which she is now working more happily with her classmates. It was great to see her helping others. She also produced a fantastic sofa out of Clay, which will look lovely in the mouse mansion.

In music, we have continued to learn about pitch. We had a great lesson using both the instruments and our voices to create different pitches. I was really proud of how well Tatiana and Arnau worked together during the music activity. I am so happy to see how much better they now are at sharing and taking turned. As a result, they both seem so much happier and engaged when working together. Well  done-please keep it up!

This week has been a very sad week for Kai and his family. We are all thinking of them and are happy to do anything to help them during this very difficult time.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday for our final full week of the school year.